Intestinal Transport of Cystine and Cysteine in Man: Evidence for Separate Mechanisms

Leon E. Rosenberg; John C. Crawhall; Stanton Segal

doi:10.1172/JCI105508

Metabolism Branch, National Cancer Institute, and the Clinical Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.

†

Address requests for reprints to Dr. Leon E. Rosenberg, Dept. of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.

‡

Visiting Scientist, National Institutes of Health; on leave from the Medical Professional Unit, St. Bartholomews Hospital, London, England.

Submitted for publication June 20, 1966; accepted September 15, 1966.

Find articles by Rosenberg, L. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Metabolism Branch, National Cancer Institute, and the Clinical Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.

†

Address requests for reprints to Dr. Leon E. Rosenberg, Dept. of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.

‡

Visiting Scientist, National Institutes of Health; on leave from the Medical Professional Unit, St. Bartholomews Hospital, London, England.

Submitted for publication June 20, 1966; accepted September 15, 1966.

Find articles by Crawhall, J. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Metabolism Branch, National Cancer Institute, and the Clinical Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.

†

Address requests for reprints to Dr. Leon E. Rosenberg, Dept. of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.

‡

Visiting Scientist, National Institutes of Health; on leave from the Medical Professional Unit, St. Bartholomews Hospital, London, England.

Submitted for publication June 20, 1966; accepted September 15, 1966.

Find articles by Segal, S. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Published in Volume 46, Issue 1 on January 1, 1967
J Clin Invest. 1967;46(1):30–34. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI105508.
© 1967 The American Society for Clinical Investigation

Published January 1, 1967 - Version history

Cystine and cysteine are transported by energy-dependent, mediated processes in human gut. When either of these amino acids is transported, only cysteine is recovered intracellularly, indicating that cystine is reduced to cysteine after achieving an intracellular location. In contrast to results with cystine, cysteine uptake is not defective in gut from cystinuric patients, nor do lysine and arginine compete with cysteine for transport. It is, therefore, concluded that cystine and cysteine are transported by different mechanisms, and that only the cystine transport mechanism is defective in cystinuria.

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